The Timeless Spelling Trap

Due to a mean trap of the English Language nativity plays have, since the dawn of… well, primary school nativity plays, suffered the inclusion of misspelt intruders. The angel/angle dilemma is a timeless one. I myself fell prey to this wily spelling trap countless times resulting in the angle Gabriel visiting Mary and spreading the good word, O hallowed angle. Every year, according to innumerable primary school children, the angles of God are up to all sorts of blessed behaviour. The angles coming down to visit the baby Jesus, the angles in the school play, the children who whole-heartedly intend to become either an angle or a postman. The angles are everywhere.

All this to say that, although for some reason it is always funny, I completely side with the little children who end up making this all too easy to make mistake. It is very confusing, I mean angel and angle are basically the same word, apart from a couple of letters in different places. So, although us clever ones who can now assuredly aspire to become an angel (rather than a measurement of degrees) may snigger, we have to remember it’s actually a design fault in the language which is to blame. It is, for a littler whippersnapper, a understandably confusing conundrum.